Edy Hurst’s Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Himself is the only play of which I’ve been made aware by the science fiction magazine Starburst.
The play is something of an unknown quantity—the atmosphere on entering the theatre is suitably spooky as the stage set comprises a massive cauldron and a Latin book of spells with folk songs and children’s nursery rhymes being chanted in the background to eerie effect. Edy Hurst attempts a dramatic entrance by appearing within, and climbing out of, the cauldron before realising the manoeuvre is impossible to achieve with dignity and scrambling onto the stage on hands and knees. So—the show is a comedy but, it turns out, one with a distinct autobiographical tone.
Hurst has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which accounts for him becoming distracted and messing up his daughter’s birthday party by forgetting to send out the invitations. But he prefers a different explanation; having learnt he may be descended from the Pendle Witches, he wonders if that might be why he becomes obsessed with certain subjects and undertakes an off-centre journey of self-discovery.
Even if Hurst did not mention his ADHD diagnosis, it might be easy to guess as he tends to suddenly jump onto tangential subjects. Hurst has a particular obsession with Vengaboys, whose songs I honestly thought were intended as a parody of the Europop genre. Sometimes this has charming and certainly unexpected results as an effort by Hurst to conjure a magic spell spins off into a tribute to the group complete with glowing inflated beach balls being thrown into the audience.
At other times, the obsession seems manic and a bit disturbing. Hurst desperately leafing through a ramshackle scrapbook he has compiled to prove his theory the Vengaboys really did make a concept album.
Like a witch’s brew, the show has a number of ingredients. Hurst, performing as scribe to the court that tried the Pendle witches, points out the flaws in the prosecutor’s case. Conjuring major magic spells requires, explains Hurst, a really big hat. Hurst has a unique modern-day variation on the requirement to encircle an area with salt to safeguard those within. As it only covers half the audience, the rest have to look out for themselves.
The central joke running through the play is that Hurst is hopeless as a witch, stumbling his way through a Tarot card reading and assuring an audience member there is no need to be concerned about the frequent appearance of the death card.
Hurst’s enthusiasm is such he speaks rapidly and not always clearly, so the surtitles over the stage are a great help, although they sometimes show a punchline before it is spoken. The surtitles even acknowledge Hurst’s ADHD, highlighting when he is ranting rather than speaking.
Edy Hurst’s Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Himself takes a highly unusual and very entertaining approach to neurodivergence, even though you wouldn’t want to be trapped with Hurst when he is obsessing about his favourite subject.